I'm completely in agreement on the rational cuts, but I would hardly consider cutting NASA and science funding rational.

I think the most rational cuts would be to National Defense, ( Defense is important, but to much of what they include in these figures are offense,
which WE DO NOT NEED ) welfare/unemployment, and Medicaid and Medicare. Call me crazy, but i think medicaid and medicare should be COMPLETELY disposed
of. (At least for the time being) ( Why won't this ever happen? These projects line their pockets and keep the masses content and happy )

It wasn't even until '65 that medicaid and medicare were enacted. ( When did our debt start to explode exponentially? The 70's, coincidence? )
Medical insurance and medical care is a luxury, and it is simply one we cannot afford at the moment. It is not the government's responsibility to
insure healthcare to all of its people. Where's the government on insuring that i have a multimillion dollar home, private planes, frequent
vacations, and other luxuries? It accounts for practically 1/3 of the federal budget.

And because i know the argument is bound to come from you or someone else, no science is not a luxury. Well i guess you could consider it a luxury in
a stagnant nation, but if progress is your objective then it is absolutely not. Science and research are at the heart of every form of progress. But
alas, progress is not their objective, profit is....

In time my good sir, but this is not a sight seeing expedition. They picked the location because of specific data and materials they would like to
research. Sadly, their budget doesn't allow for sight seeing missions at this point in time.

I like seeing scenery with hills and the sky of Mars, so can any1 tell me, is this true color picture?

The atmosphere looks paler than our sky but still blue, where is the blue from? On the Earth the sky's blue is the reflection of particles from the
oceans but here? I've always thought the sky of Mars is orange as in the other pics.

Also what is the black, lake-like looking is this a crater or some cooled down magma?

Originally posted by Imtor
The atmosphere looks paler than our sky but still blue, where is the blue from? On the Earth the sky's blue is the reflection of particles from the
oceans but here? I've always thought the sky of Mars is orange as in the other pics.

That's not why our sky is blue. Our sky is blue simply because that wavelength of light is easily scattered in our atmosphere. It's called
Rayleigh scattering. If Mars' atmosphere was completely dust free, it too
would have a blue sky. Probably a dark blue due to how thin the atmosphere is.

Then why is the sky on Mars more orange, it is the light's wavelength yes but the light is dependent on what's below, i.e an ocean or dust as
on Mars.

No. The color of the sky has nothing to do with "what's below". It has to do with the way light is scattered. The sky on Mars is colored the way it is
(not really orange, more like "butterscotch") because of the dust in it. Air makes the sky blue. Since there is little air and much dust, the Martian
sky is not blue.

If it weren't for the dust the Martian sky would be dark blue, almost black. Like Earth's sky looks at 100,000 feet.

nice photos ... be a while before we get those amazing images as promised

The face looks to be nothing more than a hill/mountain. The area is pretty awesome with the supposed pyramids and such, but NASA isn't exactly going
pyramid or ancient artifact hunting.

Also, after several hundred millions of years of no water or possibility of life, we won't find visible fossils or anything of mind-shattering
interest lying around I don't think. Not unless something landed or crashed into the red planet recently, in which case, we'd never get to see it
anyway.

Originally posted by Imtor
I like seeing scenery with hills and the sky of Mars, so can any1 tell me, is this true color picture?

The atmosphere looks paler than our sky but still blue, where is the blue from? On the Earth the sky's blue is the reflection of particles from the
oceans but here? I've always thought the sky of Mars is orange as in the other pics.

Also what is the black, lake-like looking is this a crater or some cooled down magma?

I also really like this picture. My opinion on the dark "lake-like" formations we are seeing is that they are the blue-ish colored sand dunes that can
be seen in satellite imagery across Mars. I am more interested in what materials make it appear so blue. Should be interesting once the Rover strolls
over there.

After bothering to do some research, I figured it out, it is Basalt. Which is actually quite common on planetary bodies with volcanic history. Now
either its basalt flows from the lava flows inside this crater in its history or its an accumulation of Basalt dust from across the martian surface,
which has formed dunes after becoming trapped inside the crater. Either way, still beautiful.

^ This picture I linked, the sky is actually bluish,there are lots of bodies on Mars darker rocks, which clearly come from somewhere else, it could be
a crashed meteor too, I can't see if that's a crater though.

This image shows the colors modified as if the scene were transported to Earth and illuminated by terrestrial sunlight. This processing, called
"white balancing," is useful to scientists for recognizing and distinguishing rocks by color in more familiar lighting.

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